In May of 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a promise to put a man on the Moon--and return him back safely--by the end of the decade. Somehow, it worked.
Over 50 years later, it’s easy to forget how ambitious Kennedy’s promise was. We’d gotten our butts kicked in the Cold War space race with Russia. America hadn’t launched the first satellite. America hadn’t been first off this planet (with a human or an animal). America hadn’t been first to the Moon, even, if you count Russia’s Luna 2 and 3 satellites. In fact, Kennedy’s speech came just 20 days after we’d put our first man, Alan Shepard, into space. Then six years later, our manned quest to the moon would start with the most extreme failure possible, when three astronauts died in a fire during Apollo 1 launchpad testing.
To read the original article: 1 | From NASA's Archives, 50 Amazing Photos Of The Apollo Moon Missions | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
